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"At its current rotation period of 243 days, Venus’s climate could have remained habitable until at least 715 million years ago if it hosted a shallow primordial ocean," explained Michael Way, who led the team.

A golbal view of the surface of Venus (Image: Reuters)

"These results demonstrate the vital role that rotation and topography play in understanding the climatic history of exoplanetary Venus-like worlds being discovered in the present epoch," he said in a research paper describing the study.

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Of course, the scientists aren't saying that there used to be aliens living on Venus - only that it could have feasibly supported life.

In fact, the theory of Venus as a life-supporting globe similar to our own has been around for a few years now. The results of the computer simulation model just add a little more weight to the argument.